Gordon Always Believed

Proved His Worth With Postseason Run

Ben Gordon walked into his empty high school gym last week, smiled and panned it with a look of respect.

For it will be the place he'll always remember as the jumping-off point to his NBA career.

An ESPN crew was scheduled to come in on this day and follow him around to some of his hangouts in this Westchester County town.

Soon, he'll likely sign a sneaker contract. Nike and Reebok are battling for his services.

Ben Gordon envisioned all these things happening one day. He knew after his sophomore season at UConn that his junior year would probably be his last in college.

But Gordon's first 2 3/4 years at UConn were a mere tantalizing teaser for what so many, so often had hoped to see from him on a regular basis.

One game no one could stop him from scoring. Another game he stopped himself. This was a constant. And then, for the better part of this past season, he was so caught up in going to the NBA that he forgot that the game is supposed to be fun. He was supposed to relax and have fun.

When the 6-foot-2 Gordon realized it, his opponents regretted it. He was swishin' here, dishin' there. And then, all of a sudden, the guy who looked like he would have been a mid-to-low first-round draft pick at best, thrust into the lottery without a doubt thanks to some wizardly performances in the final nine games.

Gordon averaged 23 points, including 36 against Alabama in the Phoenix Regional final, in leading the Huskies to the national title. He was unstoppable.

So what jump-started Gordon?

Well, for one, his sparkplug of a coach, Jim Calhoun, turned psychologist again and had a conversation with him before the stretch run.

He also called Gordon out in a team meeting after the Huskies lost their regular season finale at Syracuse.

``And I just got it in my head,'' Gordon said as he pulled out a bleacher in the dimly lit Mount Vernon High gym. ``I figured it out, like, `OK, you're only as good as your last performance, basically.' Once I knew that, I just kind of stopped worrying. I think I was just putting too much pressure on myself. I just decided I was going to go out there and be carefree, have as much fun as possible. And once I started doing that, those last nine games I just started playing my best basketball.''

Those nine games were probably the difference of $2 million in Gordon's bank account, since he is projected to be drafted anywhere from No.3 to No.10.

Gordon doesn't believe even when he was mired in a mid-season slump that he ever would have been a low first-round pick.

``Nah, nah, I wouldn't have been,'' he said. ``Not after teams would have had me in for individuals workouts and I would have shown them what I had.''

Gordon, who has worked out individually for every team picking from No.2 to No.10 -- with the exception of the Wizards -- had terrific workouts, according to some of the general managers who saw him.

The L.A. Clippers, who have the No.2 pick, summoned him to their place for a look Sunday.

Gordon has not stopped soaring since those last nine games, which began with the Big East tournament.

He dropped 29, 29 and 23 on Notre Dame, Villanova and Pittsburgh on his way to the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award.

These performances came after an 11-point, 4-for-13 afternoon in the loss at the Carrier Dome.

After that game, Gordon said he could have scored 30 against the Orange but that the Huskies also needed to rebound better and play better defense to win.

When Calhoun, who reads every word ever written about his team, got wind of that statement, he brought it up to Gordon -- in front of his teammates.

Calhoun's message was something to the effect of, ``Well go down [to the Big East tournament] and score 30 then.''

``Now,'' assistant coach Tom Moore said laughing, that's a risky thing for a head coach, to call out your first-team All-Big East guy, because kids could take that and he could have pouted and just sort of went into a shell and not played well. He was put out there in front of his teammates and he responded. I guess Coach knew what he was doing.''

Calhoun is a master at psychology. He went to it again with Gordon when he called the player into his office before the tournament.

``It was like the same conversation I had with Caron [Butler],'' Calhoun said. ``A little of it, honestly, at least a little bit was embellishment on my part.

``I called him in to simply say, `Are you studying hard?' He said, `I'm doing OK.' I said, `Well, you've always been a very good student and you need to start studying harder. I'm hearing that [NBA] people come to a game and quite frankly, for seven, eight, nine, 10 minutes during a game they don't see the player that I'm telling them that they could have and that you need to take that into consideration.' I said, `The lottery is fine, but I don't think, in my opinion, that you're going to get drafted high because they're worrying about what you're going to do 82 times a season. If you have 15 nights off ... you need to understand that.' I think he took the message.''